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December 21st, 2012 by Kristen Wong | Comments Off on Nir Eyal – Medical Tourism in South Asia: Moving From Brain Drain to Brain Gain

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. With the 2012 global turnover expected to reach $100-billion USD, medical tourism (travel across international borders to obtain health care) is rapidly expanding. India and Thailand are currently the lead global service suppliers. Unfortunately, providing health care to tourists may exacerbate the already critical shortages of health professionals in these countries’ underserved sectors—in remote rural areas and in the public sector. What can be done to improve the impact of medical tourism on health worker availability in these sectors? State regulation of medical tourism might increase prices and send tourists to competitors. International regulation and codes tend to be toothless. Nir Eyal proposes an ethical accreditation system that might improve health worker availability at an acceptable cost. Accreditation could promote global health in additional areas. This lecture is part of the ongoing Green College Principal’s lecture series, “Thematic Series: Public Health Law and Policy in Asia.”